News from 1935 The Demise of Doric II

[Mark Baber]

The New York Times, 5 September 1935

Liner Doric Sends S O S; In Crash With Freighter
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By The Associated Press
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LONDON, Thursday, Sept. 5---An S O S call was flashed from the Cunard
White Star liner Doric today, saying the vessel had been in collision
with the 2,160-ton French freighter Formigny.

The Doric is on a cruise, en route from Gibraltar to London.

The scene of the crash was off the Portuguese coast, about seventy miles
off Oporto.

The distress call was picked up by the Land's End radio station,
Lloyd's.

The British steamer Mooltan radioed the Lands End Wireless Station at
6:09 A. M. (1:09 A. M. Eastern daylight-saving time) that the British
steamer Orion was standing by to take passengers from the Cunard-White
Star liner Doric, which had sent out an SOS.

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[Mark Baber]

The New York Times, 6 September 1935

PASSENGERS TAKEN OFF DAMAGED DORIC
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All 735 Transferred to Two Other Ships After Crash Off Portuguese Coast
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LINER GOES ON INTO PORT
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400 Are Towed to Safety After Paddle Steamer Springs Leak in the English
Channel
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Wireless to THE NEW YORK TIMES
---
LONDON, Sept. 5---Steaming homeward through early morning mist off the
coast of Portugal today, the Cunard-White Star cruise liner Doric of
16,484 tons was ripped open to the waterline on the starboard aide by a
collision with the French steamer Formigny, of 2,166 tons.

With the Doric listing and held afloat only by bulkheads, her 735
passengers were transferred by lifeboats to the British liners Orion and
Viceroy of India, which, with searchlights playing, had answered the
Doric's S O S. There was no panic and not a single life was lost,
although for some time there was anxiety for two boatloads of passengers
that had drifted away in the fog.

Several of the passengers were experiencing their second sea accident in
twenty days, as they had been transferred to the Doric from the liner
Laurentic, which was in a collision outside Liverpool with the Napier
Star. When the sun finally pierced the mist this morning and the Doric
moved away she was down at the bow and her propellers were showing, but
she reached Vigo, Spain, tonight under her own power.

An impressive thanksgiving service was later held on the upper deck of
the Viceroy of India, with all the rescued passengers present except
those suffering from shock or exposure.

The Formigny was not seriously damaged.

[A short article about the English Channel collision mentioned in the
headline has not been transcribed.]

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[Mark Baber]

[MAB Note: The next item in this series will appear on 9 October.]

The New York Times, 8 September 1935

Doric's Passengers Landed
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LONDON, Sept. 7 (AP)---More than 700 passengers, transferred from the
Cunard White Star liner Doric Thursday after a collision with the French
ship Formigny off Portugal, were landed at Tilbury today from the rescue
ships Orion and Viceroy of India. A number of the passengers
disembarked carrying little luggage and wearing non-descript costumes.

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[Mark Baber]

[MAB Note: The next (and last) item in this series will appear 3 November.]

The New York Times, 9 October 1935

DORIC TO BE BROKEN UP
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British Liner Has Been Laid Up Since Recent Crash
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Special Cable to THE NEW YORK TIMES
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LONDON, Oct. 8---The Cunard White Star Doric, 16,000 tonner, which was
one of the pioneers of two-class passenger service on the Atlantic, is
to be broken up although only twelve years old.

The ship has lain at London since a collision off the coast of Portugal
Sept. 5.

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[Mark Baber]

[MAB Note: This concludes the reporting of the end of Doric II.]

The New York Times, 3 November 1935

EVENTS OF INTEREST IN THE SHIPPING WORLD
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***
Liner Doric Reported Sold for Scrapping
***
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[Several irrelvant paragraphs omitted.]
---
Doric Reported Sold

It was reported from England yesterday that the White Star liner Doric
had been sold for scrapping. Registered at 16,484 gross tons, the Doric
is the third White Star ship consigned to the shipbreakers since the
company was merged with the Cunard Line in the Summer of 1934. The
others were the Adriatic and, more recently, the popular transatlantic
liner Olympic. In addition to these, the scrapping of the Cunard White
Star liner Mauretania, which has already begun in a Scotland yard,
swells the tonnage of abandoned ships of the combined fleets.

The Doric was not an old ship, as ships go, having been built in 1923 by
Harland & Wolff in Belfast.

Officials here said they had no information as to where the Doric would
be broken up.
---
[More irrelevant paragraphs omitted.]

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